- The Valdosta Community Soup Kitchen will be closed indefinitely.
- The soup kitchen has been in operation since the early 1980s and feeds 150 people.
- Watch the video to hear how neighbors and social agencies are handling the sudden closure.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
As you can see behind me, neighbors are gathering around our city’s soup kitchen.
This will be one of the last times they can before closing for good on Christmas.
"We don't want our community to go bad."
I’m Malia Thomas, in Valdosta.
The soup kitchen has been feeding families for 40 years and is now closing up shop. I’m here to find out why.
Meet T'Challa Bradley.
He tells me his brother lets him stay with him, but he'll have to find a place to stay soon.
One of the resources he uses in the neighborhood is our soup kitchen.
"Our soup kitchen does well. It does well."
He tells me a hot meal isn't the only benefit of the soup kitchen.
"It's the embrace and the welcoming of it."
When I told him they're closing their doors indefinitely due to the board aging out, he told me he understood, but people need to come together to keep it open.
"If other resources come in this stronger they know how to take advantage of these things it'll be a whole lot better for us."
County manager, Paige Dukes, tells me the empty space left in the Leila Ellis building will go towards expanding the county's probation services.
"Currently, I got probation officers working off of folding tables that need to be in offices so probationers can get the quality service that they need."
There are limited resources all around.
While leaders work on getting probationers a new home to work out of, Yurshema Flanders, the LAMP shelter director, says she's thinking of ways to help 150 people stay fed.
"I'm looking at these families that are in need so it's up to me to make sure that I'm putting something in place to make sure that people are getting fed."
Various churches and local groups are currently meeting with the county to see how they can continue keeping soup kitchen services alive.
In Valdosta, I’m Malia Thomas, ABC27.
